Its that time for NXT’s Takeover special, dubbed The End. As NXT was kinda dragging and not showing off that sparkle that it used to, this Takeover reassured that NXT is still a big thing. The night started off with 'The Perfect Ten' himself, Ty Dillinger taking on the newcomer, Andrade “Cien” Almas. Cien, before debuting on TV was working house shows under Manny Andrade. As someone who lucked out and got to see him, he is a special talent & that was proven in his match against Ty. This actually was a fast paced, back and forth match, showing off the skills of both competitors. One thing I will say is that Ty Dillinger is very underrated, as he is over with the crowd and can work a fantastic match. Ultimately, Andrade won of course and showed the NXT crowd that he deserves to be here. Next was the Tag Team Title match between American Alpha and The Revival. Now I've been a fan of The Revival since they started and slowly also got hooked into American Alpha as they were the hot tag during Mania season. These two have been doing battle with each other for months and have been putting on nothing but classics, and last night was no different. The mesh between two different styles makes out to be a hell of a match. The back and forth style between these two teams left the crowd on the edge of their seats and in total shock when The Revival reclaimed their titles to become 2 time Tag Champions. This match was easily a legit contender for MOTN. As The Revival celebrated, the crowd showed their appreciation to American Alpha giving them a standing ovation. While that happened, these two big men took out American Alpha who later on were named The Authors Of Pain managed by the legendary Paul Ellering. What does this mean for American Alpha? Will The Authors Of Pain 'takeover' the Tag Team division? Following this match was another dream match come to life, as Shinsuke Nakamura took on Austin Aries. Man, what a fantastic overall bout between these two performers & an absolute masterpiece of a match. Both performers went all out and Nakamura came out on top with the victory. Nia Jax has been on a mission since debuting in NXT, and that's to become NXT Women's Champion. She had a chance against Bayley and lost, and kept fighting to eventually take out Bayley to get to the current champ Asuka for that title shot. Now if you go size for size between the two, Nia has the upper hand and used that to her advantage during her match. Asuka used her brains over Nia’s size to chop down the giant with vicious kicks leading Asuka to retaining her title. NXT Takeover is known for firsts as the first Takeover had the first Ladder Match in NXT history, and the main event for this one was a first ever Steel Cage in NXT history with champion, Samoa Joe against the challenger, Finn Balor. These two been going at since London and with the shock of NXT Lowell, Finn has had revenge on his mind. As every Steel Cage match, it was intense. These two left it all in the ring with intense kick outs and brutal kicks/chops. Samoa Joe took the win with a vicious Muscle Buster from the second rope to retain his title. This Takeover may be up there with Dallas as one of the best I have ever witnessed. Great matches up and down and lots of questions to be asked. Who goes after Joe? Can anyone stop Asuka? All these will be answered soon. This Takeover is what NXT needed to revive it and make it interesting. Lets see what happens in the future.
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Last night Beyond presented Gigantic at Aurora in Rhode Island and it absolutely lived up to the hype. From top to bottom the show had everything from hard hitting to comedy. The show kicked off with a returning AR Fox going against Jaka from Team Pazuzu. First off, the man called Jaka set the tone of the night with his entrance, legit got the whole crowd buzzing. Now onto the match, this was a high flying face paced match with AR Fox flying and Jaka working the kicks and punches. Ultimately, Jaka came out with the win. To follow this much, we are going to get a little weird and awkward, as Johnny Cockstrong went one on one with Space Monkey. This match made everyone feel a little awkward. It had bananas, tails and just a bunch of weirdness. Johnny gets the win which people were kinda happy about. Following that awkwardness, was a Women's Wrestling Revolution showcase match between Veda Scott and 'The Double X Diva' Alexxis. This match was a solid match, Alexxis took a page from her husband Eddie Edwards' book and chopped the crap of out Veda, which got the crowd riled up. Veda ended up fighting back and getting the victory. After the match though, Veda grabs the mic and pours her heart out about LuFisto, who fought earlier on in the day, and was able to still call her out. LuFisto vs Scott at Americanrana? I'm down. The best tag team in the independent scene is Da Hit Squad, and they had an open challenge. Who answers? None other than TDT, Tabarnak De Team. Good god was this an absolute brawl! Big men flying, beer smashing over heads, holes in walls. My goodness this match was absolutely brutal and it was an honor to witness it live, a definite must see match. Da Hit Squad prevailed of course and screamed for War Machine next. Good god that gives me goosebumps. Tough act to follow right? Welp, not if you're in House Of Glory, as we had a House Of Glory 4 way with 'Cashflow' Ken Broadway, Chris Seaton, Marq Queen and the lovely Sonya Strong. Now I've only seen these 4 once at Limitless Wrestling, but good god the moves and chemistry they have is absolutely amazing. Marq Queen ends up with the win after hitting a beautiful 450 but one of the big highlights was Sonya Strong absolutely killing it and getting a “Please Come Back” chant. The match prior to intermission was a surprise match as Pinky Sanchez made his return to Beyond and went right for it as he called out Homicide. Homicide pretty much the whole match laughed while taking it to Pinky and beat him soundly with my favorite finish, the Gringo Killer. Great match between the two and always nice to see Pinky back. After intermission, we had the tag match with the debuting Monster Mafia going against EYFBO. This match was part comedy, part hard hitting. I will say first hand, if you have not seen Monster Mafia live….IT….IS…A…Must! These two are absolutely amazing in the ring, with EYFBO they put on an absolute classic, and EYFBO came out on top. My god, this next match I could go on for days about. Legit MOTN, as Donovan Dijak took on debuting Keith Lee. Keith Lee is an all around beast, him and Dijak tore it up. It was like Godzilla vs King Kong. These two started off trying to shoulder tackle each other which lead to the outside & Keith getting the upper hand to shouldering Dijak onto the merch table. These two mammoths went back and forth with each other to the point where Keith Lee did a tope onto Dijak on the outside. Dijak ended up getting the upper hand and hitting the Feast Your Eyes on Keith for the win. Great match, lots of respect for Keith as the crowd wants him back. #BIGDUNN, JT Dunn took on the big Jeff Cobb up next. Now, don't forget JT has his own referee in 'Kingpin' Brian Milonas. JT took it hard to big Jeff as they battled all around the ring but, JT seemingly couldn't get it done as Jeff Cobb got the win in what JT considers a controversial 3 count but, JT was just too slow to kick out. Big main event time as Big Damo took on the 'Dirty Daddy' Chris Dickinson. This was a pleasantly surprising match as Big Damo showed off his technical wrestling skills & took it to Dickinson in every way possible. Dickinson came up huge with the win over Damo and then got called out by Dijak. Now as they were just about to get the match started, JT cheap shots the ref then Dickinson followed by Dijak. JT proclaims again that he is the 'Ace of Beyond Wrestling' only to be stood up by Brian Milonas and forced back into the ring as Dijak and Dickinson set their differences aside and attacked JT, leaving him out cold in the middle of the ring. A lot of people didn't know what expect out of this card but it definitely blew the roof of the building. Beyond does it yet again and provides a fantastic show. June 26th, Somerville its going to be fun as its headlined by Dijak/Dickinson vs. Death By Elbow. Can Dijak and Dickinson co-exist for their common enemy? What will Milonas be like? Find out in Somerville.
This Sunday at Smash Wrestling, 10 competitors will face off in 5 separate 1-on-1 match ups to be included in the 5-way elimination final to crown a new #1 contender to the Smash Wrestling championship. For the third straight year, Smash has delivered on an awesome line up for the tournament with a fresh blend of unique match ups & storyline based scenarios! One by one, I'm going to preview & try to predict both the tournament and non-tournament bouts.
SMASH Wrestling GOLD #Facts: - Current WWE & NXT stars have been included in GOLD in the past such as Kevin Owens, Biff Busick & Rich Swann - The first tournament was for the vacant Smash Wrestling Title - Matt Cross & Candice LeRae are past winners of GOLD, both being very successful & world traveled athletes - This will be the first GOLD tournament not involving Scotty O'Shea & Matt Cross - TARIK is the only person to be involved in ALL 3 GOLD tournaments - Josh Alexander will miss the GOLD event for the first time ever - Johnny Gargano just hit 365 days as the champion of Smash Wrestling leading up to this event #GOLD2K16 Opening Round Match - Candice LeRae v. TARIK: The opening round sees the winner of last year's tournament, Candice LeRae face off against the only man to compete in every single tournament in its history, TARIK. TARIK is fresh off of Fourth Gunn where despite looking like a star, he failed to capture the championship from still-champion Johnny Gargano at 'Brock Gets Smashed'. Candice on the other hand, hasn't seen a victory in Smash since November's 'London Calling' event, so it's safe to say whoever loses this match isn't going to be in the best state of mind following this event. I honestly believe whoever wins this match, wins the entire tournament & earns themself a title shot later on this year for Super Showdown 4! #GOLD2K16 Opening Round Match - Facade v. Kevin Bennett: This opening round match up is very interesting, considering both made their debut at last year's 'Smash Kicks ALS' event & haven't looked back being almost regulars on the roster since. 'The Remix of Pro Wrestling' & 'The Neon Ninja' are making their debuts in the tournament together in the first bracket of the entire thing. Smash Wrestling looks to finally separates the path of these 2 being pretty much intertwined together since arriving on the scene. The wild card of this match has to be Big Tank & Dani Mo at ringside & what part they play in this contest. I've got Kevin Bennett moving on to the finals, solidifying him as a staple of the brand going forward. Big fan of both, lots of potential here! #GOLD2K16 Opening Round Match - Mike Bailey v. Tyson Dux: 'Speedball' Mike Bailey returns to Smash Wrestling for the first time since unsuccessfully challenging for the Smash Wrestling Championship back in February, to take on a man who's rightfully called 'the Godfather of Ontario Wrestling' in Tyson Dux. Tyson has the advantage in 2 forms, as he advanced to the finals of last year's tournament and knows what it takes to do so, as well as he hasn't been defeated on the Smash Wrestling main shows since back in January to Jon Gresham. Mike Bailey looks to pick up his first victory in Smash since a Smash TV taping back in March 2015. Gotta go with Tyson's momentum and pick him for the win but don't be surprised if Bailey advances. #GOLD2K16 Opening Round Match - Franky the Mobster v. SUSHI: SUSHI makes his Smash debut, all the way from All Japan Pro Wrestling to take one of the most underrated big men in Ontario, if not THE most underrated, Franky the Mobster. Franky has had very entertaining matches with Dalton Castle, Candice LeRae & Mike Rollins, being victorious in all 3 meaning he's undefeated in a Smash ring. SUSHI looks to make a huge impact not only debuting in Smash & being apart of the GOLD tournament but also doing something no one has been able to, and that's defeating Franky in a Smash ring. I think Franky continues his winning streak until the finals, but it's gonna take more than 1 of those competitors in the final match, hurt or not to take down the Mobster. #GOLD2K16 Opening Round Match - Courtney Rush v. Mike Rollins: The final of the opening round bouts sees 1/3 of the Well Oiled Machines, the #F8tfulEight tag team tournament champions facing off against TNA's Rosemary, also known as Courtney Rush. At 'Any Given Sunday 4' in March, Mike prevented Cherry Bomb from assualting Courtney more after the DQ loss, enfurating Cherry in the process & getting himself involved in a feud that's been brewing for years. With no sign of the other 2 WOM members at GOLD, Courtney can focus all of her aggression towards Cherry on another member of the stable, taking out her security & protection in advance before getting her hands on the woman now known as Aliie at a later date. I think Mike might be able to sneak one out, with Courtney's focus being off but he's gotta be on his game, because Courtney focused or not is very scary. Non-Tournament Match - The Overdogs (John Greed & Sebastian Suave) v. Brent Banks & Scotty O'Shea: We have a very unique non-tournament match pitting one of, if not the elite team of Smash in the Overdogs, against 2 men who have nearly killed each other in a Smash ring in Scotty O'Shea & Brent Banks. Slowly but surely, it looks like we're seeing a slightly different side of 'the One Man Dynasty' then seen in the past. Scotty O'Shea wants to put the differences aside after the insane battles of the past between the 2, and put the chemistry of the 2 together in a tag team situation to prove themselves and to finally & hopefully get each other on the same page. With tag team experience & uncertainty alone, I would have to select the Overdogs for the win. Can't imagine Scotty & Brent on the same page! Smash Wrestling Championship Match - Eric Young v. Johnny Gargano (C): This match got 2 very intriguing additions since being announced a little while ago, as Eric Young is bringing Scott D'Amore alongside with him for his Smash debut to turn the numbers game against 'Johnny Wrestling' for the first time in his entire title reign, as Fourth Gunn is no more. Johnny Gargano talked about being the Smash Champion & a star on WWE NXT every time he's had the chance, but after this Sunday, he may not have claim to that title. Eric Young recently showed up on WWE Network's hottest product in NXT, challenging the NXT Champion & Smash alumni Samoa Joe to a match, proving that Eric is truly a 'World Class Maniac'. Will we see a new champion this Sunday? Either way, this promises to be the toughest challenge in the entire reign of Gargano's & with no back up at his side, it's going to be interesting to see how the gameplan changes and if he can pull out a way to retain the championship. This all goes down this Sunday in Mississauga, Ontario at the Franklin Horner Community Centre, with a bell time of 5 PM and doors opening at 4 PM. If you're unable to attend this or ANY Smash event, I highly recommend checking out Smash on Demand (ondemand.smash-wrestling.com) as for only $7.49 a month, you can experience everything Smash has to offer from the Any Given Sunday's & Super Showdown's to the road shows like Fanshawe & Brock Gets Smashed + extras & so much more! Smash will also be making some historic announcements on Sunday regarding their July, August & September shows so be on the lookout on their social media for those announcements + other great content. Limited tickets are available, purchase them here! Utter these words to any wrestling fan and instantly the vision of Earl Hebner ringing the bell a millisecond after Shawn Michaels gets Bret Hart into Bret’s own move, the Sharpshooter, at Survivor Series 1997 at the Montreal Forum despite Bret Hart not submitting and also being mid-stream in reversing the move. However, there was a screwjob in Montreal 66 years earlier at the Mount Royal Arena.
The parties involved in this debacle were on one side Montreal promoter Paul Bowser, French wrestler Henri DeGlane, DeGlane’s manager Dan Koloff, and to a degree Dr. Gaston Demers who was the president of the Montreal Athletic Commission at the time, while the other side featured American wrestler and then world champion Ed “Strangler” Lewis and his manager Billy Sandow. In world where politics and paybacks, or receipts as they get called, the original Montreal Screwjob is full of both. Strangler Lewis was the most dominant wrestler of his era and one of the most dangerous. The legend of Lewis is basically you had to pay him to lose because when push came to shove he was just going to steamroll an opponent and win. Such a payoff occurred in 1929 between Lewis’ camp and Bowser. Gus Sonnenberg was a fairly famous football player with the original NFL. He began wrestling part-time during the football offseason, which would become a growing trend, in 1928 and was instantly a box-office draw. Sonnenberg’s appeal was he was using a diving tackle to finish matches which was a novel addition to a grappling match. Part of this appeal was that many times Sonnenberg’s opponents would be hit so hard they’d fly out of the ring and be counted out on the floor. The 1928 NFL fall season would end with Sonnenberg winning the league championship. At the time he was playing for the Providence Steamrollers and with the proximity to Boston been very close Paul Bowser naturally used Sonnenberg’s on many cards to take advantage of his popularity. An agreement was reached with Strangler Lewis and Billy Sandow to drop the title to Sonnenberg on January 4, 1929. Part of this agreement was that Bowser would pay Lewis $50,000 from the $70,000 gate receipts for the show. An additional piece of this deal was that when Sonnenberg’s popularity waned the title would come back to Lewis or Bowser would have to pay an additional $70,000 to Lewis. In October 1929 Jim Londos, one of Bowser’s promotional rivals, sent middleweight wrestler Pete Ladjimi to get into a fight with Sonnenberg’s on the streets of Los Angeles to expose Sonnenberg’s inability to legitimately wrestle. Londos figured he could damage Bowser’s claim on the world title as well as the champion’s credibility by having such a public embarrassment of Sonnenberg’s skill. This would lead to Sonnenberg being accompanied by other legitimate wrestlers as the pseudo bodyguards to protect him from another attack. Word of the fight eventually would make its way to the public and in December 10, 1930 in Los Angeles the title would go to Olympian Ed Don George. Lewis and Sandow assumed that Bowser had double crossed them. The truth of the matter is that Bowser probably forgot the second part of the deal considering he booked Lewis against George just four months after George won the title. On April 13, 1931 Lewis would face the champion George in Los Angeles. Due to the fact that George finished fourth in the 1928 Olympics many people thought he could handle Lewis in a straight up wrestling match so having George scheduled to win the match wasn’t considered to be more than a formality. As the two combatants stood in the center of the ring Lewis would have the following conversation with George: “Well tonight’s the night” “Oh no” “Oh yes! How do you want to do this? Do we give these people a great match or do you want to wrestle?” “Let’s give them a great match” This was the conversation has told by Ed Don George in the Lou Thesz biography Hooker. George and Lewis were friends and he knew he could not beat Lewis in a straight wrestling match. Three weeks later Bowser managed to book Lewis in a match with French Olympian Henri DeGlane. DeGlane had won the gold medal for Greco-Roman wrestling at the 1924 Olympics. Despite the double cross on George by Lewis was in fact Bowser’s own fault, Bowser would decide that he was going to double cross Lewis instead of paying him again. Sandow made a request for an American referee for the event. The Montreal Athletic Commission would then respond with the statement that they had very capable referees in Quebec and then appointed Eugene Trembley to be the match official. Kid is unsure whether singles request has done because he if felt that he can pick referee would be impartial or if it was done to generate interest in the match by being the proverbial bad guy American. The first fall was a battle between Lewis’ famous headlock and DeGlane’s notorious armlock. According to the news report at the time, Montreal’s Le Devoir, Lewis had tried countering the armlock with a full nelson but the attempt resulted in DeGlane getting the first fall just after the 33 minute marker. Sandow was livid over what he perceived to be an intentional fast count on Lewis. In fact, Sandow protested so vehemently that the commission’s president Dr. Gaston Demers would intervene and award the fall to DeGlane. How much of the grandstanding over where the referee was from before the match hurt Sandow we’ll never know. As was the custom at the time the wrestlers retreated to their respective locker rooms for a break. Based on the match report in Le Devoir both wrestlers re-entered the ring and Lewis went on the offensive immediately. He applied armlock after armlock until DeGlane’s arm began turning white from the loss of circulation. Lewis would then pin DeGlane just past the 9 minute marker to take the second fall. DeGlane would fall into his corner screaming and the referee rushed over to see why. Eugene Tremblay, as well as Dr. Demers, noticed bite marks on the inside of the upper arm, near the arm pit, and Demers immediately ordered Tremblay to disqualify Lewis. Lewis demanded a photograph of the bite be taken. Tremblay was said to be aghast at the request and refused to let it happen despite Lewis’ demand for one to prove his innocence. Sandow was furious and protested with more vitriol than the first fall. Demers ordered Sandow to be quiet or lose his license. Demers then ordered three ushers to have him escorted out of the building. Lewis had a different surprise awaiting him behind the curtain as a gloating Paul Bowser was there waiting for him. Normally such bravado would be deemed foolish but Bowser had five “heavies” armed with baseball bats standing at his side. Lewis, according to the story told by Lou Thesz, apparently assessed the situation and opted to leave a warning of sorts: “You think you’ve stolen something from me but I couldn’t care less. You’ve actually done me a favour. I’m fed up with this scene, and I’m already booked in Europe, so you can keep the belt. I don’t need it where I’m going. Besides I’ve already proved to you I can take it back if I decide I want it.” The next day Sandow would file an official protest and pay the $5000 bond to file citing that between a fast count and that Lewis did not administer the bite but rather DeGlane performed self-mutilation. The commission quickly rejected Sandow’s appeal. Apparently such rejections by the commission were so common that it didn’t even garner much in the way of media coverage. According to Le Devoir Sandow’s actions before the event, which were deemed insulting to not just the people of Quebec but also their culture, resulted in Demers rejecting a legitimate claim. That is very telling that a French paper would basically corroborate Sandow’s version of events. So what did happen? According to Sandow and Lewis they believe that DeGlane bit himself when in the locker room and made sure it was in a spot where the referee couldn’t see it until DeGlane wanted him to. According to historian Tim Hornbaker, however, it was DeGlane’s manager Dan Koloff who had given the fateful bite. Either way, a deceptive ruse occurred and the first Montreal Screwjob was placed in the annals of history. Of course like all stories there are people who believe that due to inconsistencies of events when telling the story that all parties were involved and this event was used to elevate DeGlane to prominence outside Quebec. The one flaw in this concept is that when Lewis finally got DeGlane back in the ring he absolutely demolished him in such a brutal and ferocious fashion than DeGlane had to be threatened with not just a fine but the loss of his pay before he’d come out for fall number two where Lewis again tore him apart like he was nothing. Unfortunately for Lewis the title had already been dropped by DeGlane. |